No Frills Buffalo Releases Crime Novel ‘Stay Away From Lions’ | Crime

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A petty thief, local mobsters and a parish priest who’s more sinner than saint come together in the gritty black-comedy crime novel “Stay Away from Lions,” the latest release from No Frills Buffalo.

Written by Buffalo natives and St. Bonaventure University graduates J. Matthew Smith and Patrick Reynolds, “Stay Away from Lions” follows the poorly led life of Tommy Patton, a small-time South Buffalo crook who upon being sprung from his latest stint in the Erie County Jail learns he’s in debt to a ruthless mob boss as a result of a robbery gone wrong.

With the payback deadline looming, a two-faced henchman charged with collecting the debt goes behind his boss’s back and hatches a scheme designed to benefit all involved. But when that scheme unravels, unholy secrets are exposed costing people their lives.

Set in Buffalo’s historic Irish-Catholic First Ward, “Stay Away from Lions” is a fast-paced hybrid of hardboiled and offbeat storytelling.

Smith, a resident of the Albany suburb of Colonie, is a veteran journalist who has worked for a number of daily newspapers and the Associated Press. He is also the author of “Jailed By My Father: Tales of Tough Love, Bad Haircuts and O.J.”

Reynolds, a former CMO of Tweeter Home Entertainment, has held senior roles in several global advertising firms. A resident of Norwell, Mass., he has spent the past decade working in the startup technology world.